Texas shoppers may recognize many of the other trademarks listed on the office's website, such as “My H-E-B,” “H-E-Buddy” and “Central Market.”

And while “Nerd Head,” “That's S'more Like It” and “Love at First Chomp” may seem more obscure, the unique trademarks indicate a growing trend in retail world and one of the main ways H-E-B distinguishes itself from competitors.

“There is a tendency for all stores — all retailers, not just supermarkets — to imitate each other quickly. So you have to keep raising the bar to look special,” said Betsy Gelb, a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston.

“You have to keep doing something you didn't do three months ago, because if it worked well, your competitors are now doing it,” Gelb said. “Trademarking is just one of those moves, if you will. You're playing chess all the time, and you're trying to stay ahead of the competition.”

H-E-B — among whose trademarked slogans is “It's Not a Grocery Store, It's an H-E-B” — markets a wide range of carefully selected and often self-manufactured private-label products.

The locally based grocery chain long has sold such items through its own family of brands, which include Hill Country Fare and Central Market. It also recently launched the H-E-B Organics line of cereals, meat and produce.

But with some of its unusual trademarks,

H-E-B appears to be protecting its more unique products, such as the Vegan't Believe It snacks made from corn, wheat or potatoes.

“What a clever trademark does for you is prompt word of mouth even from somebody who maybe isn't buying in that category,” Gelb said. “You can see somebody saying, 'You can't believe what I saw in H-E-B yesterday.'

“That's gold for them,” she added, “and now suppose you post it on your Facebook page or some other social media communication tool, now that's platinum for them.”

The trademark office's website found more than 1,300 trademarks attached to H-E-B, including pickles called Persnickety Pickle People Proudly Pick, a Catch Your Z's tea and Ahh! Grip dusters.

Even with its regional footprint in the Lone Star State, the sheer number of trademarks that H-E-B has collected closely trails that of competitor Walmart, the world's largest retailer. A search of trademark records listed fewer than 1,800 trademarks for Walmart.

Still, the number of trademarks H-E-B has registered seemed appropriate to Robert McRae, a partner at local intellectual-property law firm Gunn, Lee & Cave.

“Whether a company's the size of H-E-B or some of the smaller clients that we may deal with from time to time, it's not uncommon to have a good trademark portfolio,” McRae said. “It's becoming more and more common because the general world of business and the general public is becoming more and more aware of intellectual property rights and wanting to protect them.

“A company like H-E-B is going to be very conscientious of their marketing,” he said, adding that trademarks help

H-E-B protect its self-manufactured products which often sit on the shelf next to brand-name goods.